1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to dental aids. More particularly, the present invention pertains to dental aids for animals. Even more particularly, the present invention pertains to dentifrice-containing dental aids for animals.
2. Prior Art
As is known to those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains, domestic animals, through their diet or their inherent nature, oftentimes need dental care. To this end, veterinarians prescribe tooth brushing for the animal, be it a canine or a feline or another animal. However, anyone who has ever attempted to brush the teeth of a cat or a dog knows the difficulties encountered therewith. It is very difficult to keep the animal's mouth open for any extended period of time to enable getting a brush to contact all the teeth as well as the gums. The tediousness of this job often results in the teeth not being brushed. Several prior patents have addressed the problem of dental hygiene for animals. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 1,149,170, issued to Allis, teaches an animal chew toy with an external coating that may have nourishing or medicinal qualities. U.S. Pat. No. 4,802,444, issued to Markham et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 5,126,137, issued to Lambert, teach chew toys with a plurality of apertures that an animal's teeth penetrate into, thus providing a scraping action to remove plaque. And, U.S. Pat. No. 5,474,033, issued to Mitchell, Jr., teaches a chew toy suspended from the neck of an animal, chew toy having an external coating that may provide medication to the animal.
While these prior inventions might be of some limited use in improving dental hygiene of animals, none is as effective as human brushing, because none has the combination of a brushing motion and a substantial amount of dentifrice.
The present invention is directed to solving this problem.